One Shot of Creativity Please, But Hold the Misery!

They say that you have to experience true pain before you can create great art, but I've seen the paintings Van Gogh did after he cut off his ear and they weren't any better, although they were all excellent of course.

If I have to go through a series of personal tragedies to be a better writer, I'll pass and why does misery have anything to do with creativity? I guess it's supposed to be about the struggle.

I'd rather be a mediocre writer and live a comfortable life, as opposed to dying in the gutter like Edgar Alan Poe just to be brilliant. Well, for people who have been reading my blog or been following me through social media, last week was memorable, to say the least. I found out on Monday that my 9-year marriage was over and the next day, I got a biopsy because my doctors fear that I might have prostate cancer. The weekend before, I was hanging out with my dog and enjoying time with my wife and a little more than 24 hours later I was lying on my side while my urologist punching little flesh plugs out of my prostate.  Wow, what a turnaround for someone who thought who had it all! The message is never get complacent and expect nothing, because we're entitled to zero and tomorrow is not guaranteed.

I realize now that I do have it all, because I have great friends who are wonderful and care about me. I also know that I need to be a better friend to the people I love, because they're more valuable than anything else in the world. I was putting so much love and care into my marriage, I discarded a few people along the way and now I want them back. I know they will forgive me and some of them have done so already, but re-connecting with them will soon be something I really want to focus on now more than ever.

For an update, I still don't have my test results yet, but either way I'm ready for the next chapter. I don't know whether or not I'll be a better writer after all of this, but I do know that I'll be a better person and a better friend and maybe that's all I need.